ITA Airways (AZ, Rome Fiumicino) operated its first commercial flight to Libya in almost ten years on July 24, 2023, albeit as a charter. The carrier is studying the resumption of scheduled services following a recent diplomatic agreement between Italy and Libya.
The Rome Fiumicino-Tripoli Mitiga rotation was operated by A320-200 EI-DSW (msn 3609). The charter flight carried politicians and civil servants, including Libyan Prime Minister Abdulhamid Al Dabaiba and the representatives of the Italian civil aviation authority (Ente Nazionale per l'Aviazione Civile - ENAC).
The Italian carrier said it was "considering offering commercial flight operations between the two countries from the upcoming winter season".
Italy and Libya reached an agreement to reopen direct flights in early July 2023, becoming the third EU member state to do so. Greece and Malta have also authorised flights to Libya.
Libya was proscribed by the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) in 2014 and remains covered by a Conflict Zone Information Bulletin (CZIB) advising against flights to/from/over the North African state. However, as the CZIBs are advisory in nature, national regulatory bodies and individual airlines can still choose to greenlight services to Libya.
In contrast, Libyan airlines remain banned from European Union (EU) airspace by the European Commission. The EU Air Safety List is binding and cannot be overridden by national authorities. As such, despite the agreement between Libya and Italy, only European carriers will benefit from the move for now.
The current scheduled EU-Libya network is limited to flights operated by Marathon Airlines (3x weekly Athens-Benghazi) and Malta MedAir (4x weekly Malta International-Tripoli and weekly Malta-Misurata). MedSky Airways is reportedly planning to launch flights to Italy in autumn 2023, but if it plans to operate in-house, the plan is contingent on the EU reauthorising Libyan airlines to fly in its airspace.
